MYANMAR – The terrorist junta council has released all former members of the armed forces who were imprisoned under the Military Act on December 7 and reinstated them into the armed forces with promotion, confirmed army sources.
The war criminal junta chief Min Aung Hlaing pardoned all criminal members of the armed forces in prison on December 7. The pardoned criminals included those imprisoned for desertion, violation of discipline and committing crimes during duty and those imprisoned under Military Act sections 37(i), 65, 71/Yar324 and 65/47(ii).
Those pardoned former junta soldiers are required to serve out their remaining sentences or a volunteer period from the date of their pardon, as per section 182(a) of the Military Act, in the armed forces and will have to serve the remaining sentences in prison if they fail to do so. In other words, they effectively became a source of conscripts for the junta council.
It is said that the pardoned criminal former soldiers were picked up in civilian vehicles on their release date by soldiers in civvies to related military division headquarters and persuaded to serve in the army with a promotion. Those criminals will then be armed and sent into the mix of civilians.
An informed among the junta council warned the civilians to take extra caution in their daily lives as those pardoned criminals could be committing crimes without restraint after realising that the junta council won’t prosecute them. The number of the criminal soldiers released from prisons reportedly numbers over 1,000.